Kitsunebi 狐火 || Kemono Jihen

Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Truth

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"Sh-Shiki! What are you doing here? Stop this! Stop this foolishness!" Tademaru pleaded.

"Foolishness?" Shiki questions. "This is endearing, compared to the horrific business you've been carrying on!"

"You misunderstand! I did everything in my power to support you and your mom! Kumi-san even said she–" The thread around his neck tightened.

"You keep mom's name out of your mouth, you rat bastard! Unless you want to die an ugly death, shut up!"

Kabane and Nobimaru gave some wonderful killing suggestions but you weren't against them. "I-Inugami-san, are you okay with this?" Akio turned to Inugami in hopes that he would stop you. "You're crazy if you approve of children killing people!"

Oh, was he wrong if he thought he'd take his side. "I don't approve of killing. I'm resigned to it, unlike you. If you kill, you could be killed: if you could be killed, you kill. That's all there is to it."

"You don't mean that–" Akio was interrupted by a scream. "You guys are horrible! Leaving me behind like that...Your phones have been busy this whole time, and it's dark! I was worried what to do if a bear or something came at me, heard rustling, shrieked out loud, and eek myself three times! I'm completely soaked all over! I've had it! This sucks! I hate it!" Akira cried.

You'd gotten so caught up in the action that you'd forgotten about Akira. You all apologize to him. Then rustling came from behind Akira and a large centipede-like Kemono came out. Inugami was quick to react and shot it with his gun. However, it's head was still moving and it launched itself at Akira but Inugami shielded him with his arm.

Another Kemono appeared and dragged Inugami and Akira away. Shiki was about to run over to them when you stop him. "Don't act carelessly. We're surrounded." Shiki looks around to see you were right. There were several forest Kemono circling you, on the ground and in the trees.

"Are these Kemono who live in the woods?" Kabane asks. "No, not exactly. These are...."

"...your siblings." Akio completes Nobimaru's sentence. "Your brothers and sisters, born during the course of our experiments, Shiki." One of them cuts the thread, lowering Akio. "Smart, aren't they? They didn't end up being the golden webbing, but they possess intelligence and can speak. They learned the words Kumi would use, even though they don't appear to understand their meaning."

They opened their mouths and imitated a feminine voice seemingly similar to that of Shiki's mother, repeating a series of words of 'Shiki', 'I love you', 'don't worry' and 'live'. After hearing them, Shiki fell on his knees crying.  "Mom!"

"Oh dear, he snapped. He may be an adversary, but that was a worthy fight, " Nobimaru praised or mocked. "What should we do? Shiki-kun seems to have lost his will to fight. Should we handle this by ourselves? Huh? Kabane-kun, are you angry, by any chance?"

You could see him as well with his almost flame-like hair and his red eyes glaring at Akio Tademaru. "Nobimaru..."

"Yes, what is it?"

"...shut up." Nobimaru quickly covered his mouth with his hands. Kabane knelt beside Shiki. "Shiki, it seems like the situation has changed somewhat. So I'm going to ask you again–Is there anything I can do?"